National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA) confidential report regarding corruption in the Bureau of Customs and involvement of Iglesia ni Cristo. This report discusses the tara system that exists during the time of Bureau of Customs (BOC) Commissioner "Ruffy" Biazon (Com Biazon) in 2011 until 2013. These are based from documents submitted by BOC officials, NICA holdings and interview of four (4) sources who validated much of the contents of the documents held.
Tara may be defined as protection money paid by a consignee and importer normally per container per week per port. During the incumbency of Com Biazon, this involves two ports: the Port of Manila and Manila International Container Port.
The tara ensures that "no alert" reports on the shipment or "no hit" on a particular importation would be made by BOC officials to ensure the smooth processing of the importation documents of the consignee/importer. This means that there should be no problem or inconvenience that an importer will have to deal with from the port of origin to the local ports until the shipment reaches the importer/owner.
Tara money is thus distributed to all "offices" that handled a particular import transaction. This scheme that works inside the BOC covers all goods. This report however, will give more focus on rice importation/smuggling.
